The Ogress and the Snake and Other Stories from Somalia (Folktales from Around the World)

About this book

For millennia Somalia has been crossed and recrossed by camel caravans of merchants bringing with them stories such as "The Good Prince " in which a kindhearted prince conquers the evil magic of a beautiful sorceress and "The Ogress and the Snake " a Somali Hansel and Gretel story about five little girls abandoned in the desert who take refuge in the house of a man-eating ogress. Elizabeth Laird heard many of these tales in Jigjiga the capital of Ethiopias Somali region. She gathers together the finest of them in The Ogress and the Snake and Other Stories from Somalia. The stories abound with colorful characters Deya Ali the greedy trickster fox; Kabaalaf the shopkeeper crooked as a jug-handle who meets his match in the slippery Hirsi; and the miraculous (and bodyless) Head whose magic powers conjure up a talking camel and bring him a princess. These and the other magical tales in this delightful collection are the perfect introduction to a fascinating and little-known country.